Hall, which led, respectively, to the buttery, kitchen, and pantry, each of which formed separate household departments. Function In a large house, the buttery's principal function was storage of wine and its preparation for serving. Candles were also dispensed from the buttery as was beer to those lower members of the household not entitled to drink wine. Today in colleges in Cambridge, Dublin, and Oxford, drinks are served from the "Buttery Bar". The buttery generally had a staircase to the beer cellar below. The wine-storage area of the buttery, in keeping with the higher value of its contents, was often more richly decorated to reflect the higher status of its function. Role of the butler Later the monk butterer became the smartly suited "butler" that we know today , the household officer in charge of the buttery, and possibly also its provisioner (i.e., the sourcing and purchasing of wine). In the royal household the "Marshal of the Buttery" was often a post discharged under the feudal land tenure of grand serjeanty. In less important households such an officer was termed the yeoman of the buttery. Later, as household staff in the great houses became reduced, the butler also became required to personally serve wine to his lord and guests at banquets. Decline From the mid-17th century, as it became the custom for servants and their offices to be less conspicuous and sited far from the principal reception rooms, the Great Hall and its neighbouring buttery and pantry lost their original uses. While the Great Hall often became a grand staircase hall or large reception hall (as at Powderham Castle in Devon), the smaller buttery and pantry beyond the screens passage were often amalgamated to form a further reception or dining room. Modern use Most Oxford and Cambridge colleges, University College and Trevelyan College, Durham, King's College London, the University of Bristol and Trinity College, Dublin call their eating places butteries to this day, as do a few schools in the United Kingdom. The communal kitchens/dining rooms in Goodenough College, a postgraduate student residence hall in central London are called butteries, one example being "the Princess Alice Buttery" in William Goodenough House. The residential colleges of Yale also refer to their snack bars by this name. Trinity College at the University of Toronto also uses the name to refer to its cafeteria located in the Larkin building. Bruce Hall at the